Jon Niese left Monday night’s game with a 3-0 lead at the end of the seventh inning. However, Omar Quintanilla later dropped a line drive, Daisuke Matsuzaka let up three quick runs without getting an out, Gonzalez Germen allowed a walk-off single and the Mets lost 4-3.

It was the fourth loss in five games for the Mets, who drop to 16-15 and one game over .500.

Matsuzaka walked his first two batters.

“When I was warming up in the bullpen, I was struggling with my command,” Matsuzaka said after the game. “Going into the game, I just tried to focus on the batter and getting outs, but I couldn’t control my body well today. I really regret taking away Niese’s win and the team win.”

“Any time a game is lost it’s tough to watch, but it is what it is,” Niese said. “It’s just one game. We’ve just got to come back tomorrow and get them.”

With two on, and Matsuzaka on the mound, Marlins 3B Casey McGehee hit a line drive to Quintanilla, who dropped it, and another run scored.

“It knuckled a little bit. I’ll take the blame for it,” Quintanilla said. “I still should have caught it. I saw it knuckling for a while and I tried to get in front of it and it just ducked right under my glove. That was a big play. It changed the game.”

“That’s the second time on this trip we had the chance to get out of an inning and didn’t catch a ball, and it’s hurt us,” Collins later lamented.

Matthew Cerrone, Lead Writer

The whole thing was a mess, from top to bottom, and it happened so fast. It was a demoralizing loss, one that can make a team and fanbase totally second guess a hot start and the potential of a season. Hopefully, it stops Tuesday.

In regards to ‘the little things,’ Quintanilla needs to make that catch, it’s that simple. They played near-flawless baseball during late April, which is why the Mets were able to capitalize on good pitching and mitigate weak offense for a nice run of feel-good success. Fielding and base running errors will lead to losses for this team. The Mets are not good enough to make mistakes in key spots, I don’t care how well they’re pitching or hitting.

In regards to Dice-K, this was always going to be the problem with using him in relief. There will be nights when he warms well, feels strong, has his command and everyone is happy, as he did in his previous few appearances – and then there will be nights when he can’t get it together in warm ups and it carries in to the game, like Monday. He injured his right calf Saturday pitching against the Rockies. He warmed up the next day, though he never got to pitch. He warmed up Monday and got in. That’s three get-ups and two appearances in three days, plus a possible injury, for a guy who has spent his entire career preparing for and only pitching every fifth day. I like his potential, but the Mets need to prepare for his wheels falling off, just in case it happens sooner than later.

Putting aside the fact that TC cannot manage a pen, we need a SS on this team to really have any shot of staying competitive in the NL East. We cannot continue to trout RT and OQ out there. Not only is their fielding severely suspect, they are almost automatic outs in the line-up.

Collins is getting blamed because all these relievers have short leashes and may blow up at any time. When Dice K is struggling, can you count on Farnsworth or Valverde to come in and get outs? You can't bring in Familia after throwing 2 innings the night before.

The manager of the NY Mets should fire MGR.Terry Collins,after last night loss;we was winning by 3 runs.Then he let Masuzaka pitching till they tide the game.Not even a blind mgr lost a game like thaone.3 consecutives walks by Masuzaka;Terry Collins is another Pete Rose.Betting or what??

Mets bullpen is currently blowing more saves than they are making. I think they have 6 saves and 7 blown saves and I'm not sure last night even counts as a blown save. The odds are less than 50% that we are going to win the game when they bring in a relief pitcher. We have the 3rd worst save percentage in baseball. Too bad because hitting is getting better and starting pitching has been pretty good.

Yeah Jeff Walters has a baloon ERA. I know of course they play in coors field 2 over there in Vegas so u have to look past High ERAs but he has a 9 ERA. Its time for Black to get recalled. I guess I would be fine with Zack Walters too but I aldo would like to see Jack Leathersich replace scott rice.

But guys in all honesty it wasnt really on the pen last night, that was Omar Quintanilla on that botched play that prob would have gave us the W. These sickening losses are eating me alive. I wish I wasnt soooo addicted to this team. Sad

Just because you CAN use a guy every day does not mean you SHOULD. Dice-K had NOTHING out there. Terry's inept managing has cost us two games in the last three days. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. Make some changes. Do SOMETHING. Find a shortstop from somewhere. Bring-up a credible RH power bat.Get another LHP for the bullpen. A PROFESSIONAL organization refuses to go gently into that good night.

dfa farnsworth and valverde and bring up thornton and walters. We need to try and piece this bullpen together and trim the fat. Everyone in the bullpen gets some blame but the two most to blame are the two we were trying to catch lightning in a bottle.

"Hot start". Seriously? Now just performing above zero expectations is a hot start. This team will go into massive funks because of their offense and bullpen, combined with Colon looking like he will be all over the place in terms of effectiveness, Mejia still being an enigma and Wheeler being far from a sure thing night in and night out.

@qualcomm TC is a decent manager, he just stinks when it comes to the bullpen. He falls in love with guys and continues to blow them out. he could tell Dice-K was lost but kept him in, Awful he does that all the time. He has no idea when to pull someone.

@Will Keesee I like your optimism. I think it's great. But, we've been hearing "it's just one game" for years now. It starts to add up you know. Nonetheless, move on and try to get a streak going. That's all they can do at this point.

I disagree. In a year or two gee will look for 15 mil a season on the open market. colon was a stop gap and meija cant go more then 5 innings, meaning all signs point to him in the bullpen. I believe degrom and matz will complement this rotation behind harvey, wheeler, thor, and montero. I would trade gee and niece and bring back a big time ss prospect and a above average solid first baseman. maybe sterling castro from the cubs. They have the best ss prospect right now in there system.